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00:00 usband Ivan back to Malaysia. Thank you very much for coming today. Sophie has been grew up in our church for many
00:07 years and good to see her back again. Uh this morning we're going to look at
00:12 Moses. Last week we um Arnold spoke to us about the call, how God calls us,
00:19 what the callings uh comprised of. This morning we want to talk about the God
00:24 who calls, the God of salvation. And the points uh which I shall be making are basically four. the God who is a
00:30 transforming spiritual reality, the God of second chances, the God who hears and the God who is to be worshiped. This is
00:36 the Lord of salvation uh which we have. Let's start off with God who is a transforming spiritual reality. This is
00:44 the first verse. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,
00:49 the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
00:58 And this is where Moses has been. This is Midian right at the bottom. He
01:05 was from Egypt. Being a fugitive, he ran all the way to Medidian. And then he's
01:10 looking after sheep. Brings it out to the Sinai Peninsula where now he's in the area of Mount Horeb. So this angel
01:19 of the Lord appeared to him and in the flames out of the midst of a bush and he looked and behold the bush was burning
01:25 yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside to see this great site why the bush is not burnt." It was
01:33 a situation where Moses has been doing this for many, many, many years. This is
01:39 the first of uh 40 years, which is basically 14,400 days.
01:46 Uh 365,000 hours. Same sheep going onto the west side,
01:54 very monotonous. And one day there's a bush that bursts into fire. And we have
01:59 if you go to the desert where Sinai is, it's not unusual for the b for the bush to burst in fire. Not unusual at all.
02:05 But the unusual thing here is that the bush was burning and yet it was not consumed. And then he basically Moses
02:11 said, "I'm going to turn aside." And the turn aside, the word turn aside is actually the word for detour. I'm going
02:17 to take a detour. And you notice there's a bit of irony here because Moses' life
02:23 is one big detour. He never started out and believed that at the age of 80, he'd
02:28 be sitting on the backside of a desert, looking after sheep day in and day out for the last 40 years. I mean, if you
02:36 look at Acts chapter 7:22, this is how Stephen describes Moses. And Moses was
02:41 instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his works and his deeds. a very if he was be
02:48 brought up in the pharaoh's temp uh uh palace he would be educated in the
02:53 temple of the sun equivalent to the Cambridge or Oxford today he would be schooled in medicine philosophy
02:60 everything else that they were uh most up to date he would be the one and he was mighty in acts and deeds uh Leonard
03:06 Mhler published book this book called the exodus case he's a he's a archaeologist
03:11 that looked into some of the evidence that exodus did take place the red
03:16 crossing did take place and he traced back the possibility is that Moses was
03:22 actually the son of a queen Habeshhat and this is little Moses being carried u
03:28 and he was actually the prince of Egypt Tat Moses II a co- regent and uh one of
03:36 the evidences if you look at the typical Egyptian nose if you look at President Norse's nose it's straight on the left
03:43 side you notice this pharaoh on on the right hand side his nose very big one
03:49 the Jewish nose is very hooked in very big so there's a possibility that this Tutmos because they're very when they do
03:55 the u the the the statues they're very very accurate so Mel Ma says that it's
04:00 possibility Moses second and all the the historical records seem to indicate that this is actually prince of Egypt he
04:06 started out prince of Egypt a general in the army and there was a legend told for
04:12 Tat Moses II where a very difficult siege of a people called the Ethiopians
04:17 down south, they they could only attack them via the waterway because the land was blocked by poisonous snakes. So what
04:24 Moses the legend is did was that he got a whole bunch of ibis which is basically
04:30 the sort of predatory bird and what they would do he released tons of these birds and they ate up all the snakes and then
04:36 most and then the Egyptian army is able to attack via land in an unprotected flank to the Ethiopians winning a
04:42 tremendous victory. Here's a ruler of Egypt, a region, a co-ruler.
04:49 The trouble is, the irony is that he is now on a big detour. He is in the middle
04:54 of the wilderness. He is in a detour in life. I don't know, many of you,
05:02 are you where you started out to be? I know I'm in a huge detour in my life
05:08 since my father died when I was about eight years old of a heart attack. I always sworn I'd have to be a cardiac
05:14 surgeon. So I wind up down there instead looking after the urinary system. So it's a bit of a demotion. I never
05:20 believe that you, you know, you wind up, I'm I'm sure some of us, how many of you
05:26 think in life, you know, are you exactly where you always wanted to be or are you
05:31 on a detour? How many of you on a detour in life? Yeah, quite a few people detour in life. And the interesting thing about
05:38 detours, sometimes God meets us in a detour. It's not necessarily bad that
05:44 you're not at a job you're supposed to be in. You're not in the country you're supposed to be in. You're not with, you
05:50 know, so many circumstances you're supposed to be at. You're at a detour. But God meets Moses in the middle of a
05:57 desert. He didn't meet him in the palace. He didn't meet him in Egypt. He met him in the middle of a desert. And sometimes God meets us in the wilderness
06:03 because that's the only place where we will listen to him. Everywhere else in
06:09 the city, it's too noisy. It's too heavy with activities and we just don't have
06:14 the time to listen to God. And here you actually have the burning bush. So God beats him in a detour. God often
06:21 encounters us in a detour. A second thing is that he there's a burning bush. A bush that burns that doesn't get burnt
06:29 up. And sometimes God uses something uh to to challenge our view of reality. I
06:36 know if you go around, if you're going to look in Patalang Jaya or Sububangja, you're not going to find many burning
06:41 bushes. You can't even find bushes. You know, you find trees, but you don't see bushes, right? But what is the thing
06:48 that caught his eye? God uses something that challenges your perspective of reality. Suppose you feel depressed and
06:57 you have an emptiness inside you and by all scientific reasoning you should go
07:02 and see a doctor who prescribe amytalene to you and you take that and then you do your yoga lessons you do for therapy you
07:08 do all that and for years and years you do all that I'm not saying it's wrong to see a doctor I'm not saying wrong to do your yoga or your exercises your
07:15 meditation but years after that you're still empty and that's a paradigm buster isn't it because you're supposed to get
07:22 better and you're not or How about last week we had a young man who came to join us in a prayer meeting
07:29 who on the other ep uh side of life instead of being mixed up and and empty
07:34 he immensely successful. He told me an insurance uh uh broker he's also into
07:41 fitness and something else. He's only 32 years of age you know and yet being
07:49 immensely successful and yet something was happen. It doesn't compute because the world tells you if you're so successful, you should be happy.
07:56 It's like the bush that doesn't get burnt up. It's something that challenges your paradigm of reality. It's a reality
08:03 buster. And sometimes God uses that in our lives. When we do detour, we come
08:08 upon something that doesn't quite make sense in our lives. We can't put our finger on it. Something's missing.
08:15 But you have to turn. You have to make a detour to look into the matter. that many of us are just too busy or we don't
08:23 want to turn. You see, God sends burning bush. I didn't see burning bush. Burning bush go away. I still want to continue
08:30 what I want to do. And that if that happens, we're not going to come into spiritual encounter with God. If you
08:35 want to have a spiritual encounter with God, when God sends a burning bush into your life, something that doesn't really compete compute, you need to turn aside.
08:42 You need to take a detour. Take some time. come to church, come to Alpha, do
08:47 something and not continue in the path. You need to take a detour. And the third
08:53 point here is that he confronts a god of fire. God is a God of fire. God
09:01 is cast as a god of fire. The bush comes in as the angel of the Lord is there. It is full of fire. But we're not used to
09:07 that. We're a generation that thinks that God is God of water. You know what
09:12 water is? You you put your hand in and the water flows beside your hands and you form water. Your hand is unchanged
09:19 like our lives are unchanged. You plunge into maybe cold water. You let out a bit of a squeal. Ah but it's still
09:24 unchanged. God is not a god of water. What we have done is that we want a god who meets our
09:31 needs. Isn't it a water god? Uh this is a book by Claire Falsani called the god
09:36 factor. She looked at the god factor in many of the lives of celebrities including Hugh Hefner, Barack Obama, Al
09:44 Shapton and this is the conclusion of a book and she said the general thread
09:50 through the book is that God is whatever you want God to be. Many took pieces
09:55 from other religions and merged them to form their own forms of spirituality is a stretch to find a God factor in many
10:02 of them. So here we actually have people who who basically want a God who
10:09 meets their own needs. This is the kind of God that sells. If you have an evangelistic meeting where people tell
10:15 you about sin, not many people are come. If you want to bring non-Christian friends and you have
10:22 to have a world-class choir called the Watto and then you got more than 600 tickets
10:27 sold. If you have a middle class evangelist come here and share the gospel about sin, you will hardly fill
10:34 two rows. You see, we are now looking for a god who will be molded. This is
10:40 Desmond Tutu, Nobel Prize winner, archbishop in South Africa who fought
10:45 the evils of par apathide. This is what he writes. Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual
10:52 monogous relationship includes physical the touching, embracing, kissing, genital act, the to the totality of our
10:58 love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what
11:05 earthly reason do we have to say that is not the case with the homosexual?
11:10 In fact, he says, I would not worship a god who is homophobic. That's how deeply
11:16 I feel about it. I would refuse to go to homophobic heaven. No, I'd rather say sorry. I would I mean I would much
11:22 rather go to the other place. You know what the other place is about? It's hell. So here he actually has an idea of
11:28 what his God's going to be like. And he is his God's got to love has got to agree that the gay act is okay
11:35 again making God in his own image. And so we actually wind up if we do that
11:43 is not working. Can we have the next slide?
11:50 Yeah, with a god of our convenience. This is what Nana would look like, Alan,
11:56 if we had our way. Not a wild lion, a domesticated lion, a god whom we go from
12:03 church to church and find. That's a god I like because he, you know, he doesn't do hymns,
12:09 right? A god who does rock and and rap. a domesticated God, a God of
12:15 convenience, a God who will say when we say the Lord's prayer, our father, my kingdom come, my will be done. Uh you
12:22 know, get with the program. And we are dealing with a generation of Christians even within our pews that sing this
12:28 song, my kingdom come, my will be done. They um and and your trouble is with if
12:34 you have this sort of God, that is not going you're not going to get challenged. You're going to get bored
12:39 because this God is predictable. You know why? you created him. How are you going to respect a god which
12:46 you create? How is that god going to satisfy you? How you're not worshiping a real god? It's a god you made up. If you
12:53 make up your own gods, you will not respect that god. You that god will not challenge you. That god will not
12:60 transform you. That god will not change you. That's the problem. Next slide.
13:09 Bla1 Pascal was a um very famous mathematician scientist that lived in
13:15 his day. Uh he became a great apologist defender of the Christian faith just
13:21 like the video which you saw just now. Um after a significant event that
13:27 happened in his life and we only knew about this when he died. When he died, there was a piece of paper sewn into his
13:32 coat and they took out this piece of paper and they read and this is what it said in the piece of paper. Next slide.
13:39 It said on the year 23rd of November 16. Hey, all disappear.
13:47 Can I just just press forward button? This doesn't work anymore. No battery.
13:54 Go back, please. I got to have the slides. Let's just click.
14:01 Okay. Doesn't matter. U go back please. Go back.
14:09 Slide doesn't come up. Okay. Never mind. Just stay there. All right. So, the first line he writes on the year of our
14:15 Lord 1654 23rd of uh November. Yep. 10:30 to 12:30.
14:22 Big words. Fire. Fire. Okay. And then he writes, "God of
14:28 Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars, God of Jesus Christ." Guess where this verse
14:35 comes from? Exodus. The same fire experience that changed
14:41 the life of Moses, changed the life of Bla1 Pascal um in his life. Next slide.
14:50 Next slide. Yeah. So he describes his experience of God as a god of fire. And you know the
14:58 interesting thing about fire, there's two aspects about fire. You can two two taps please.
15:04 Fire is both mesmerizing and beautiful. Uh the first thing you notice about fire
15:10 is beautiful. We got people in western countries uh they don't use fireplace anymore but they have a video with fire
15:17 and they sit down there with the central warming system, right? and they're watching the video with the fire because
15:23 fire is beautiful. It's mesmerizing. How many of you remember in in in youth camps when you go and you're all sitting
15:29 down there toasting marshmallows or watching the fire? Something that so attractive, it it grabs you. It
15:35 mesmerizes you. It totally captivates you. But yet, on the other hand, if you go near fire, it's dangerous. It burns
15:42 you up. When God is described as a God of fire, he's both beautiful, attractive, and yet awesome and
15:48 dangerous. If you have a god of water, you put your hand in, the water forms around you, it leaves you unchanged. If
15:54 you got a fire, you put your hands in, you burn up, you're left with black fingers. That's the difference between
15:60 the kind of God blaze Cascel encountered and the kind of God that we want in our
16:05 lives today. If you look at what Bla1 C Pascal wrote in his note, he says, and I
16:11 want you to read, "Oh righteous father, the world had not known thee, but I have known thee. Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
16:19 I've cut myself off from him. They have forsaken me. The fountain of the living waters. My God, wil thou forsake me. Let
16:26 me not be cut off from him forever. And this is eternal life. That they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus
16:32 Christ, whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, I have cut myself off from him, shunned him, denied him,
16:40 crucified him. Let me never be cut off from him. He can only be kept by ways
16:45 taught in the gospel sweet total renunciation total submission to Jesus
16:51 Christ and my director everlasting joy in return for one day's effort on earth. I will not forget thy word. Amen.
16:59 Look at what he writes. And his God is a fire. It's a
17:05 transforming spiritual reality compared to if you actually have uh this is taken
17:11 from Michael Lee's testimony in Malaysian Christianity.com. All right, normal testimony. And Michael
17:19 Lee wrote recently that this is his favorite verse. Listen to this. Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in
17:25 obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor. Blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a
17:30 fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be a blessing for the man who fears the Lord.
17:36 May the Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live and
17:42 see your children's children. That's his favorite verse. And this is what he testifies. Because of his faith and
17:47 obedience to God, many miracles began to take place. He got his house. His security business prospered and his
17:54 relationship with his wife could not be better. If you are faithful to God, the Bible says you will reap the good of the
17:59 land he shared. in this journey of life and after he has gone through he knows now knows that God can make things
18:05 happen even when things may seem impossible he is God don't play play
18:12 now you look at the two descriptions of what blaze Pascal underwent in his
18:18 spiritual transformation in 1653 versus what we the kind of Christianity that we
18:23 have today is so pedestrian I don't know whether Michael Lee actually has met the god of fire
18:30 Because only when you meet the god of fire are you transformed. You you see
18:37 what's happening. Uh okay. See the usher
18:44 next slide. Got a lot of trouble with slide today. Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called him out of the
18:51 bush. Moses. Moses. And he said here I am. And then he said don't come near. Take off your sandals. take the saddle
18:57 off your feet for the place on which you stand is holy ground. And when he actually comes to this place where the
19:04 burning bush is, immediately God says, "Hey, you're in a very dangerous position. Take off your sandals." Why?
19:11 Because you're in a fatal zone. There's certain area which you can't can't come too close. If you look at the Mount Si
19:17 when God revealed himself, there's fire and thunder.
19:22 And even if a cow were to come near and touch the side of the mountain, the cow would die immediately. You've got the
19:28 temple, you got the holy of holies, the priest can only go there once a year. And if that priest has sin on his m in
19:34 his mind in his life, he would be killed straight away. Usuza uh one of the uh
19:41 Old Testament figures when they were carrying the ark, the bullock slipped. The ark nearly stumbled. He touched the
19:49 ark. He died on the spot. Ananas and Safhira lied one little lie to Peter.
19:55 They carried them out. You see, we're dealing with a God of fire.
20:01 Okay? That's why Michael Le, the only thing about Michael Lee's testimony is correct. Don't play play. God is a God
20:08 of fire. When you God comes into your life, it's not your prosperity, your
20:14 wife, your life. God says it's mine. My kingdom come, my will be done. And
20:22 you're on your de detour, God comes into your life. He's going to be very inconvenient. You know, they had this um
20:28 golden calf incident. After the golden calf incident, the people of Israel,
20:34 Moses said, God said to Moses, "Move the tent of meeting outside the camp." Purposely made it far far away. So you
20:40 want to meet God, you had to climb out, you to get out of the gate, go through the desert in order to meet God. He makes it more difficult. You see, God is
20:47 not somebody whom you can predict. God is not someone you can control. God is not someone going to play according to
20:53 your songs and your ambitions and your life. God is not interested in it. God has a plan. God has his kingdom. God has
20:59 his purposes. And if you want a real God, a God that you can submit to, a God
21:06 who you can be mesmerized with, a God who is the God of the whole universe, then God is a God of fire. And that's
21:13 the God that you need to consider in your life. Then Moses said to God, "If I come to
21:18 the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they ask you what is his name? What shall I say to them?" Imagine
21:26 asking the question of, you know, God's name very important. If you look in the in the news nowadays, we have this
21:31 coming out recently in Malaysia insider. It says the NGO Pasa saves God. So
21:36 they're fighting to to defend the fact that Muslims can only use the word Allah
21:42 and Christians cannot. But Marina Mahhatia just actually pointed out if you sing the naggaraku,
21:48 you use the word duhan which means all the Muslim can't sing the naraku because
21:53 you're saying duhan which is basically a Christian god. Now what if you therefore have to change the naraku to Allah. So
22:00 if you change it to Allah then all the non-Christians cannot sing the naraku because you're singing to Allah. So
22:06 you're not allowed to sing. So we keep quiet while they sing. Or do we need a whole new song? better have a whole new
22:11 paradigm, isn't it? Uh M Mart Mat's daughter says, "A Muslim believes in only one God and therefore it makes
22:17 sense that other god people should come and call God by the same name because there is no other god." It makes sense,
22:22 one god. You can call it what you like, but this is only one god. If you believe that there's Allah is one god and all
22:28 the rest are two, then you're a politist. That means you believe in many gods and they're basically contradicting
22:34 themselves for unfortunately for political purposes. A name is important because a name shows character. When
22:40 when a person's name is changed, it reveals that you're just changing character. We have a Chinese student
22:46 here, Malitz is here, Johnny. When he first came to Malaysia, he became a Christian and he want to choose a a
22:52 name, not a Chinese name. So he chose the name Want Two.
22:57 Funny name. Why you call one two? Because before he became Christian, he was a player. You know what a player is?
23:03 A lot of girlfriends, right? So he made and then became Christian. He made two rules in his life. One two first rule I
23:11 shall not be playing many more girls. Rule number one. Second rule follow rule
23:16 number one. So therefore we call him one two. The name has significance. Um uh
23:23 and when he says what is your name? Basically what they are saying to God is that what does that name mean in these
23:30 circumstances wherein the Israelites know the name of Yahweh? They know they've been right from Genesis, but God
23:37 has been silent. And all they've seen and heard is the last 400 years the
23:43 names of all other gods. Horus, isn't it? I
23:50 the ones that rule the world, superpower nation of which they are slaves. And to be crying out to this God and nothing
23:56 has happened, Yahweh, Yahweh, nothing has happened. No, you know, try not to God. And that's why they're asking,
24:02 well, you know, when you go to them, they're going to ask you, what is the name? What does that mean in
24:08 significance to their situation? God says to Moses, I am who I am. Say to this people of Israel, I am has sent me
24:14 to you. God said to Moses, say to this people of the people of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, God of Abraham, God
24:20 of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever and thus I am to be remembered throughout all
24:26 generations. A very difficult answer. What is your name? I am. What does I am
24:31 mean? Well, the word wh nobody actually knows what it means. All
24:37 right, this four consonants, there are no vowels there. We can add some vowels,
24:43 which people do. We call it Yahweh, but we don't know whether that's the one. So, the Jews never pronounce it. They
24:49 never say it because they're afraid of doing it wrong and basically blaspheming God's name. In fact, in the Old
24:54 Testament, whatever they come across W uh Y H, WH, they replace that with
24:59 Adoni, which is Lord. And also, so therefore, you will see in your Bibles everywhere big L O R D means Y H WH in
25:08 the New Testament is curios, which is basically Lord. So he says, I am who I
25:14 am. Not this is, see, if I call Michael, Michael is a noun. Nancy is a noun. I am
25:23 is an active verb not a noun. So God is not a abstract being that's sleeping and
25:31 not paying attention. He is an active verb. That means he's an action. God is
25:38 the God who is not the God was. You know that mean he is means he never was. He
25:44 is an absolute being when absolutely reality revolves around this God. He's an absolute being. Uh can I have the
25:50 next slide? Yeah. of which he is pre-existent. There's no he, you know,
25:56 if you look at that's why I showed you the video just now. The uncaused cause right from the beginning. You know, he
26:02 is pre-existent. There's no end. He's constant yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
26:08 He's independent. Everything else depends on him. He is the most valuable person in the whole universe. And he
26:15 does whatever he pleases. And he's a standard of all goodness and righteous. This is the God. So when you go to the
26:21 people of Israel, we say, "Oh my goodness, how you going to who is going to take us out of this land and fight
26:26 against Pharaoh?" God says, "I am." Who's going to lead us into the
26:31 wilderness and find us a place to stay? God says, "I am." Who's going to feed us
26:37 at 1.2 million of us? God says, "I am." So, but but Moses is going to convey the
26:44 living present reality of God into their lives.
26:49 So God is and God is also the God of their fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
26:55 this the name he's to be remembered forever. Jesus Christ had the same issue when many Pharisees came to him years
27:02 later on. And they thought you know he had blasphemed against God and they says
27:08 truly I say to you before Abraham was I am and they all took out stones
27:14 and threw at him. Now, if he said before Abraham was, I was, it's okay. He won't
27:21 throw a stone at him. You know why? He just thinks he's 3,000 years old. He must be crazy. When he says I am, that
27:27 means I'm pre-existent. Means he equates himself to God. And that's why they wanted to take up the stones and to kill
27:33 him. And so therefore, when we are on our detours in life, God
27:39 meets us and he meets us on his terms. But but we must want to make that detour
27:46 to look at that burning bush in our lives and to meet him. God is also a God of second chances. If you look um
27:55 it says here in verse 10, "Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you will bring my people, the children of Israel out of
28:01 Egypt." He's the one who's going to bring the people enslaved in Egypt out. If you look at Moses CV, suppose he's
28:08 applying for a job in OUB bank for example, right? If you got
28:15 a guy uh Esther going to OUB bank, apply to Esther. Esther is a vice president
28:20 there. She'll say took a CV see whether you want okay stop the CV you put down there foreigner no visa
28:27 don't know whether we'll get the job right because foreigner is he he's
28:32 living in media and he's not Egyptian citizen that's a problem uh the other thing in your visa it will be stated
28:37 murderer also wanted by police fugitive third
28:43 thing failed hero he thinks he's hero but actually didn't quite make it and then current occupation shepherd
28:51 or your shepherd work in bank a bit difficult isn't that can count sheep but don't count money and then what about
28:57 you know your employees will always ask you what do you think your long-term aspirations are then the fellow will say
29:03 um you know long-term goals what long-term goals is described Moses was
29:08 content to dwell his father-in-law keeping sheep hey 80 years old what else you want I'm 80 years old is it the last
29:14 thing 80 years old king can I apply for OB bank I don't think so pension scheme maybe But you can't apply for an active
29:21 job. And here you actually have someone at the back side of a desert probably
29:26 ruminating in his mind, if I only I didn't kill the Egyptian. Alama go and taro the wrong place. I should have hit
29:31 him the other way. Day in and day I was wondering if I didn't kill him, I wouldn't be in this mess. God must have
29:38 been done with me. I'm 80 years old waiting to go two more steps, you know,
29:44 I'm gone. But yet God chooses him. Uh there's a beautiful verse from Jeremiah
29:49 18:4 which describes uh a bit about how God deals with us. And it describes and
29:55 the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hands and he reworked it into another vessel as it
30:01 seemed good to the potter to do. Jeremy Maya describes God as a potter. He's
30:07 making remember that that that song with the unchained melody. What song was a ghost? is that you got that nice song at
30:13 the back and then making a nice uh uh uh goblet you know or something to put into
30:19 your into your living room make mistake then you make tamong
30:24 you make something else and basically he's just saying that when you make mistake in life and and and it didn't
30:30 things didn't quite work out God is a God that specializes in reworking life
30:36 around so even the backside of a desert he finds something for you to do and that God can use you and it doesn't
30:42 matter how old you are, what you've gone through in life, God will make it good.
30:48 You don't have to be tamong, he'll make you something else. And if you look at our church u upstairs, if you dare to
30:54 venture upstairs, we're a whole bunch of Indian folks there, Tamill, and they're
30:60 the most u disenfranchised and marginalized people in this country. Uh
31:05 the new economic policy have left them behind. So what do the main occupation take parang and come after your all the
31:12 ladies hand back right how many of you have been actually snatched I ask you to put up hands plenty of you lots lots of
31:19 people and then probably from these people because these people are from the 04 gang or 05 01 but the Lord has been doing a
31:27 wonderful work where where God has been reaching out through pastor Lawrence and that church has seen the growth from 12
31:32 in December to now about 40 and a lot of them are gangsters
31:37 if you dare to venture up there. But they're transformed by the power of God because God can use an ex snatch thief.
31:46 God can use a murderer. God can use a fugitive. We are a church of that's why
31:53 I want our church when we have our supper or lunch or breakfast. Now they fill up the whole outside section that
31:60 we should go and mix with them. You know why? Because God if God is a God of second chances. We are a people that
32:05 give other people a second chance and we oh I'm not Indian. I'm not going to sit with them. I'm going to eat with them in case they snatch my bag because we need
32:12 to give people a second chance. Third thing is that is God is a God who hears.
32:17 Uh you see after all that then the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and I've
32:24 heard their cry because of their taskmaster. I know their sufferings. I have seen I've carefully watched I've
32:30 paid very close attention. The word I know is intimate knowledge. That means God is better than CNN. Anything that
32:36 happens in the world, in your life, he knows. You know, in Isaiah, it says, "I have a name, your name, tattoo on my
32:43 hand. Tattoo on my hand." That's what God says. He knows every single one of us.
32:48 And he's heard the pain. He's heard everything that's happening in your life. Uh
32:56 this is a story of uh uh a true story uh that came out from the the hell that was Cambodia some years ago where five
33:03 million people were killed. Um and uh there was a big movie called Killing Fields that came out of it. Um this is a
33:10 book written by Don Cormarmac that looked at killing fields living fields and he describes he's a missionary in in
33:17 in Cambodia for the last 15 years. Um and he describes true life stories where
33:23 90% of the Cambodian church despite crying to God were slaughtered systematically. 90%. When they emptied
33:30 all the the towns, anybody with a watch,
33:35 with a cross, with a Bible, with glasses would be killed. They'd be bludgeoned to death. The favorite way of killing you
33:40 is basically tie you on a tree, come from behind, slice open your liver, fry it in front of you, and eat it while you
33:46 die. horrific and and all it has to do to trigger something like that would be a
33:53 wrong look, a look of defiance, a mention of God,
33:58 just mention only God gone. If you kept the Bible, that was the end of it. And they told a story of a young man called
34:05 Rada who had become a Christian and and he was defiant. He worked in the work site um and he actually kept the Bible
34:13 with him. He knew that he found the Bible, he would be killed. He still kept it. He hid it. He read and found solace
34:19 with it every day. He went back off and on from his work grueling punishing work
34:26 schedule to his village thousand people where they've all starved to death. Left 500. Half of them starved to death. He
34:32 described when his father died he wasn't allowed to go back and bury his father because the commandant told him why bury
34:38 your father? He'd be dead already. No needs to go back. Don't go back. So he went back one day and found his family
34:45 decimated. left one sister total sister was like outswitch victim totally skin
34:51 and bones mother pitifullying at the pitifully at the side of the road cooking leaves to eat to to to to quench
35:00 the kind of pain that comes from your stomach when you're starving to death and he questioned God why do you allow
35:06 and he screamed why does God allow this to happen to my country to my nation to my family you know time and time and go
35:13 again when he comes back more people And he went back to his home
35:18 in the commune and you know what have happened? His Bible was gone. All the other workers took him toilet and used
35:25 as toilet paper and used to smoke and put tobacco and he cried out to God. And
35:31 then the worst indignity would come in a few months time in 1978. Uh they would
35:36 then have this social engineering program. We think that they take the genetically best people, boys and girls,
35:41 and marry them for one month and then you separate them to different communes to produce uh good children for the
35:49 uncle. All right? And and so he would be paired up and even though he knew he'd be paired up, top of the mind was 2
35:56 Corinthians 6:14, do not be unequally yolked. Do not be unequally yoked. He was so so terrified about that. He put
36:04 it to the Lord and the day came. Big indoctrination program. Talked to him
36:10 and then he patted him up. This girl, he didn't even look at the girl. He was too scared. Could she have been a
36:15 collaborator? She could she do him in and he get killed. He didn't know. So
36:21 they brought them together. Everyone has a hut. And then that evening they got some rice cakes to eat. and and I said
36:28 opened up the rice cakes. He bowed his head and said, "Grace, oh God, thank you
36:34 up." Then he a spine, a chill went down his spine. Oh my god, I just said, "Grace,
36:41 what would the girl?" And then the girl said something. He thought he'd be found out. And you
36:47 know what? She said, "You're a Christian, too." Too.
36:53 and found out that this girl was a daughter of a pastor Choi from Bethany
36:58 Church in Nonpen. Out of all the carnage of life where one
37:04 thing after another has been wrenched from his life, God provided a Christian
37:09 spouse. His dreams were kept alive. They live happily in those few months and
37:14 they escaped into Thailand as refugees. I don't know where they are today. Uh Don Comet doesn't tell us. But you see,
37:22 God hears our prayers. He's a God of fire who burns greatly against sin. But
37:30 the fire also burns greatly in love towards us. The love that he has to us is is is tremendous. It just burns is
37:37 indistinguishable. If you look at Revelations chapter uh six, it tells us about the 90%
37:46 who didn't get happily married. And it says, "When you open the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those
37:52 who had been slain for the word of God and the witness they had borne." They cried out with a loud voice, "Oh sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long
37:59 will you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Then they were each given a white robe and told to
38:06 rest a little until a number of the fellow servants and the brothers would be complete who were to be killed. So
38:11 90% who were killed are up in heaven where God and they're crying to God every single day when when when and you
38:18 know God saying a little bit longer a little bit longer because one day when
38:23 enough have been killed by wrath will be poured upon the earth and things will begin to happen. So therefore if we live
38:29 in a world where we discount the spiritual dimension of course the world is going to be unfair. Of course, it
38:35 will look as if God doesn't hear, but every single word, God hears. He is a
38:41 God who hears. And finally, he is a God who is to be worshiped. Moses said to
38:46 God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" And this God answered
38:52 him, "I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you that I have sent you
38:57 when you have brought the people out of Egypt. You shall serve God on this mountain." This is the sign. All right,
39:04 I'm going to be with you. And he says, uh, you shall serve, which means you
39:09 shall worship God on this mountain. You know, coming to Christ is more than escaping the consequences. Some of us
39:16 think, you know, this is like monopoly. You know, we got to get out of jail card. The only difference with Christians, we got to get out of uh hell
39:22 card. You know, you get out, you know, you die quickly. Say the Lord's prayer, you wind up in heaven, you know, with
39:28 with with Apostle Peter, hey, what what you know, you want to come in? I got a card. get a card. I said my sinner's
39:34 prayer, First Baptist Church, got my baptism certificate. You can see it and then they let you in. Uh but the trouble
39:42 is if you believe that then your Christian life is going to be like sad sack. You know why? Always trying to
39:49 don't sin, don't look at pretty girls, don't eat too much, don't lie, don't cheat. Everything is don't life is
39:56 negative just so that you could get the ticket in heaven. Or or if you you you have the other kite which is more common
40:02 kind of Christian the Sunday version that the Hulk and then Monday the Saturday version when you go and you're
40:07 running your bank or whatever it comes out and Sunday oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you shake your hands and all of us to a
40:13 certain extent like that my wife tells me and the Lord of he and the Lord the God
40:20 of Hebrews has met with us uh please let us go three days so we sacrifice the Lord. The whole idea of bringing the
40:26 people out of Egypt was not to have them escape the death there know but so that
40:32 they could worship God. You see if you don't worship God you will wind up
40:38 worshiping your default version. What's your default version? The apes bull or Horus. All the worshiping gods which you
40:46 have grown up with. If you don't transfer you see God has made us so much so that the heart and soul cannot be
40:52 empty one. It must be filled with something. If you don't fill it with God, you'll fill it with the golden calf. And so therefore, when the people
40:58 of Israel were saved, they were at the bottom of Mount Si waiting for Moses to
41:04 come down. And you know, God was so gracious, not only saved them, he made all the Egyptians give their wedding ring and all the gold and give it all
41:12 they plundered the land of Egypt. All the gold were given to Israel. Why? So
41:17 the Israel will take that gold and make what? A temple or tabernacle also to worship God. You know what they did with
41:23 the gold? They made their own calf and worship back the Egyptian God. How do
41:29 you think God felt? And that happens. Why? It happens because these are the people who think
41:36 Christianity is a faith for me to escape hell. The whole idea is to escape hell.
41:41 If you escape hell, that's not going to save you. Because we're saved in order
41:47 that we worship God. If you don't worship God and you're just waiting to
41:52 get out of the hall where they come ting 10 15 minutes to one and you can't wait
41:58 to get out, then that's the wrong faith for you. Because the true faith in God is not the
42:05 one that just only saves you, but it saves you so that you're released from the clutches of sin so that you could
42:11 now be free to worship God. Because if you don't worship God, you will worship back your default gods. Whether it's a
42:18 money or or or your self-esteem or other gods, you will go back and like just
42:25 like the people of Israel, we are still enslaved. You shall be to me in
42:33 Exodus 19 a kingdom of priests and holy nations. You know, priests are the people who are the leaders. In fact, God
42:40 wants all of us to be up on the stage. You guys are all leaders. You're all worshippers. Not just sitting on the
42:46 pew. A New Testament says because you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people of this of his own
42:52 possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into marvelous light. Which means there must be life transforming
42:58 experience where you have something to say. If I were to pull one of you out and tell your friends, what do you think about Jesus Christ?
43:07 Take it to heaven. He was a nice guy. Died on the cross for something. I don't know why but is that I mean you must be
43:15 so enthralled what Jesus has mean if Jesus must be a person who's got some transforming reality in your life isn't
43:21 it if Jesus is an abstraction an idea a tradition a legend in your life then it
43:28 cannot have transformed you so much so that you'll be going out and screaming what Jesus is about. If you're not screaming what Jesus is about, that
43:34 means you don't have a spiritual reality that's transforming. You don't have a a god of fire that's transformed your life
43:40 and you're sitting down. Why am I here waiting for quarter to 1 quickly? Hey,
43:47 keep quiet. I want to go already. We see plenty of people like that. You see morning service especially open up. P they're all coming out. They can't wait.
43:55 Imagine you go to heaven, right? And you're the guy who just wants to get out of hell card. You go to heaven and they
44:01 all go worshiping God in the main hall. You are standing by the gate. Why are you standing by the I got in.
44:07 I'm sitting down here and I'm playing with the flowers. But the main attraction is God. And you're not
44:12 mesmerized by God. You're not enthralled by God. You're not excited by God. There's no reality in your life. That's
44:19 not what it is about. God saves us so that we could worship him. I will end with a quotation by Warren Werby which
44:27 describes the purpose of your life which is worship. This is what worship is
44:33 supposed to be about. Worship is the submission of our whole our whole nature
44:39 to God. Your eyes that you could see the ears, your feelings, your heart, your emotions, everything. It is the
44:47 quickening of our conscience by his holiness. Sharpened by what God is in his holiness and our sinfulness.
44:54 Nourishment of our minds with his truth. Minds being transformed by his truth. Purifying of our imagination by his
45:00 beauty. Opening of our hearts to his love. The
45:06 surrender of our will to his purpose. Worship encompasses every aspect of our
45:13 total being. And all this gathered up in
45:18 adoration the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable of and
45:24 therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of our actual sin.
45:33 All this is gathered up in adoration because when you sit in adoration of
45:38 someone who are you thinking of that someone you're no longer thinking of yourself. And the biggest problem with
45:43 mankind is what? Self-centeredness. How can you break off from your idols?
45:50 How can you break off from your addiction to yourself unless you're worshiping someone else?
45:57 The only way you can get rid of your sin and move out from the sin that enslaves you is to start to worship someone else.
46:05 And there's nobody else in this whole universe that's worthy to be worshiped
46:11 outside God. So salvation isn't a get out of hell card. Salvation is a
46:18 realization that God is a magnificent, beautiful God, a fire, a fire who is a
46:25 transforming reality in our lives that we are so enamored with. When you wake up, the first thing you think about God
46:33 and your kingdom, your kingdom come. Only then can we be transformed.
46:40 So God is a God of transforming spiritual reality. He's a God of second chances. God of hears and God is to be
46:46 worshiped. And finally, let me end with a burning bush. The burning bush is an
46:53 enigma. And if you look at the burning bush, here's a bush that is covered with fire
46:60 and it doesn't burn up. Here's a man standing next to the burning bush who
47:05 should burn up. Imagine you stand before God. I want to send you Noah me. Huh?
47:11 Send someone else. Five excuses. If you you most people give you one time,
47:16 second time gone. Five excuses. I'd expect Moses to be burnt up.
47:24 Moses was not burnt up. That's the paradigm buster for us this
47:30 morning. Christians are like Moses. The only reason we're not burnt up is
47:36 because we have Jesus Christ or the Lord and Savior where our sin is taken care
47:42 of. So therefore the fire of God descends upon our lives and we stand and we walk and we live in this community as
47:49 burning bushes and people see our lives sinful as we are but forgiven people by the grace of God and it's a paradigm
47:56 buser for people. People see oh that's something different and we go out in the
48:01 community as burning bushes. Let's pray.
48:08 Lord we thank you for for your word. We we
48:15 are all too conscious of our own sinfulness.
48:21 We're afraid and we don't want a God that was so large,
48:27 so suffocating, so dangerous that you could take our
48:33 life in any direction that you wanted to. That's why we're so
48:39 comfortable hanging on to our lives. But we realize this morning that we have to
48:45 let God be God. We have to let you come into our lives and say, "Thy kingdom
48:52 come. Thy will be done." So this morning was our fervent prayer that you
48:57 transform our nature. Come in and speak to us. Touch us with your love. Touch us
49:02 with your spirit. Fill us with the experience of blaze
49:08 Pascal fire. So that fire will burn away our sin,
49:14 burn away our self-centerness, burn away all that is evil. And the fire will fill
49:19 us with zeal, ambition, desire
49:24 to serve you and only you. Fill us with excitement. Fill us with the thrill of
49:32 walking next to you. fill us with a real experience that you not just become an abstract reality or abstract concept but
49:39 a living dynamic changing reality in our life. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen.
50:14 Let us rise and sing this hymn of response.
50:30 Oh Lord my God, when I in awome wonder
50:39 consider all the worlds my hands have made.
50:48 I see. My hill rolling thunder,
50:57 thy pu, the universe.
51:06 Bless is my soul, my savior
51:12 to me. How great a heart.
51:20 How great are
51:25 my soul, my savior to thee.
51:33 How great are we?
51:46 We are
51:51 now
52:00 son of Mary send him to die
52:07 can take that on the cross
52:15 my burden and be married
52:20 and die to save away my sin. That saves my soul.
52:28 That saves my soul. I see
52:33 to thee. How great.
52:40 How great are
52:45 my soul? I see you.
53:01 Glor.
53:20 Let us receive the blessing from God. I pray that the God of glorious greatness strengthens you with power
53:27 through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
53:32 through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power to grasp how wide and long and
53:40 high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses
53:45 knowledge that you may be filled to the measures of all the fullness of God. Now
53:51 to him who is able to do immeasurable more than all that we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work
53:57 with within us. To him be glory in the church and Jesus Christ throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.
54:08 Please be seated. After a few moments of uh silent meditation service is over.
54:16 For those who need prayer, we have some prayer needs, you can come forward. The
54:21 leaders will pray for you.
